Here are 97 books that Laughing in the Dark fans have personally recommended if you like
Laughing in the Dark.
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Having practically grown up at the hospital where my dad worked as a medical photographer, I wanted to be a nurse from the age of ten. I worked in ICU for five years and then retired to become a stay-at-home mom and later a homeschool mother. But once a nurse, always a nurse. I continued to care for friends and family, including my one-hundred-year-old mother-in-law, through health crises and long-term illnesses. My book and the others listed here tell stories of Godâs healingâphysically, mentally, and spirituallyâa theme Iâm passionate about and hope you are, too!
This is one of my all-time favorite books! Raised in India by missionary parents, Dr. Brand saw firsthand the effects of leprosy on the body. He trained as a doctor in England and returned to India where he pioneered the concept of the âgift of painââthe idea that lepersâ ârottingâ extremities resulted from the loss of sensation and subsequent infection, not the disease itself. A renowned surgeon, he was the first in the world to use reconstructive surgery on lepers, techniques he later applied to diabetics.
The book goes through the body, system by system, relating the physical body to the body of Christ. My favorite parts are Dr. Brandâs vivid stories of treating the âoutcastsâ society shuns but God does not.
The human body holds endlessly fascinating secrets. The resilience of skin, the strength, and structure of the bones, the dynamic balance of the musclesâyour physical being is knit according to a pattern of stunning purpose. Now Gold Medallion winners Fearfully and Wonderfully Made and In His Image have been completely revised and updated to offer a new audience timeless reflections on the body.
Join renowned leprosy surgeon Dr. Paul Brand and bestselling writer Philip Yancey on a remarkable journey through inner spaceâa spellbinding account of medical intervention, pain and healing, and the courage of humanity. Discover here the eternal truthsâŚ
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to runâŚ
Having practically grown up at the hospital where my dad worked as a medical photographer, I wanted to be a nurse from the age of ten. I worked in ICU for five years and then retired to become a stay-at-home mom and later a homeschool mother. But once a nurse, always a nurse. I continued to care for friends and family, including my one-hundred-year-old mother-in-law, through health crises and long-term illnesses. My book and the others listed here tell stories of Godâs healingâphysically, mentally, and spirituallyâa theme Iâm passionate about and hope you are, too!
This book spent five years on the New York Times bestseller list. Despite what some see as controversial claims that the author spent ninety minutes in heaven and then came back to life, only five of the eighteen chapters dwell on Piperâs ânear-death experience.â The majority of the book chronicles his horrifically painful struggle to survive and then recover the use of his legs which were mangled in an accident. He often begged God to let him die. Instead, God brought people into his life to help him move past self-pity and find a renewed purpose.
In the ten years since 90 Minutes in Heaven was published, millions of people worldwide have read the incredible true story of Don Piper's experience with death and life--and in reading they have found their own lives changed.
After a semi-truck collided with Don Piper's car, he was pronounced dead at the scene. For the next ninety minutes, he experienced the glories of heaven. Back on earth, a passing minister felt led to stop and pray for the accident victim even though he was told Piper was dead. Miraculously, Piper came back to life, and the pleasure of heaven wasâŚ
Having practically grown up at the hospital where my dad worked as a medical photographer, I wanted to be a nurse from the age of ten. I worked in ICU for five years and then retired to become a stay-at-home mom and later a homeschool mother. But once a nurse, always a nurse. I continued to care for friends and family, including my one-hundred-year-old mother-in-law, through health crises and long-term illnesses. My book and the others listed here tell stories of Godâs healingâphysically, mentally, and spirituallyâa theme Iâm passionate about and hope you are, too!
As a registered nurse, South African writer Shirley Corder knew cancer from a medical standpoint, but she didnât really know the disease until she heard the words âyou have cancer.â In her book, she walks readers from diagnosis through surgery and cancer treatments to recovery, shedding Godâs light along the path. Her subtle humor and genuine faith lighten a heavy subject. Though she never sugarcoats reality or implies that we should âjust trust God and everything will turn out all right,â her book provides a shot of needed encouragement at a critical time.
Nothing can sap a person's strength and hope quite like a cancer diagnosis--unless it is the energy-stealing chemotherapy and surgeries faced in the fight against cancer. But one can find hope and strength in the pages of Scripture and in the experience of someone who has been there.
Strength Renewed is an encouraging devotional for those living in the valley of cancer. Meditations combine Scripture and stories from the author's own experience and can be read in sequential order to move the reader through a typical cancer journey from diagnosis through treatment. Each devotion also stands on its own, soâŚ
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother hadâŚ
Starting when I was in the sixth grade, I researched information about epilepsy and later learned some practical ways to decrease the amount of seizures I would have. Through monitoring my daily routine and my physical activity, I learned how to prevent seizures, although no approach completely controlled my seizures prior to having brain surgery. My struggles with seizures and depression led me to have a passion for learning more about these topics and to share my story with others.
Dr. Carsonâs story is an inspiration and is an example of how a person can overcome obstacles.
Through reading Dr. Carsonâs book, I was reminded that it is important to not use life circumstances to deter you from pursuing your goals. I was inspired by Benâs determination to not let peopleâs opinions about him stop him from going to college and being successful.
As a person who has had epilepsy brain surgery, I enjoyed reading about his experiences as a neurosurgeon. Parts of this book were heart-touching and made me cry. It was encouraging to learn about how one person can make a huge impact on other peopleâs lives.
This bestselling book reveals the extraordinary life of Dr. Ben Carson--from inner-city kid to renowned neurosurgeon.
Dr. Ben Carson is known around the world for breakthroughs in neurosurgery that have brought hope where no hope existed. In Gifted Hands, he tells of his inspiring odyssey from his childhood in inner-city Detroit to his position as director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions at age thirty-three.
Filled with fascinating case histories, Gifted Hands will transplant you into the operating room to witness surgeries that made headlines around the world, and into the private mind of a compassionate, God-fearing physicianâŚ
I inherited an offbeat sense of humor from my mother, who encouraged me to create stories about outrageous subjects, like cats doing âpeople things.â Iâm grateful to have made a living writing about such things, as well as observations about my own humorous experiences in essays, calendars, and books. Iâve always looked to other funny creatives for inspiration, and the books on my list reflect some of my favorites.
Like the author, I live with mental illness and use humorous writing/reading to process my thoughts and âcheck outâ sometimes. In many instances, her words feel like my words. I canât help that depression and anxiety affect my daily life, but I do find myself musing about weird happeningsâoften questioning the reality of situations. And then I laugh.
When I read this book, I didnât feel so alone in my âweirdness,â I felt validated in giggling at the strange predicaments Iâve found myself in.Â
In Furiously Happy, a humor memoir tinged with just enough tragedy and pathos to make it worthwhile, Jenny Lawson examines her own experience with severe depression and a host of other conditions, and explains how it has led her to live life to the fullest:
"I've often thought that people with severe depression have developed such a well for experiencing extreme emotion that they might be able to experience extreme joy in a way that ânormal people' also might never understand. And that's what Furiously Happy is all about."
Growing up, I only read humour, and it was my passion to write humour. When I was lucky enough to find myself travelling the world and working on cargo ships, the source material presented itself, and I took my chance. Publishers were wary of the crudity inherent to a sailorâs life, so I present myself as if P.G. Wodehouse himself had gone to sea. I am the butt of all the pranks, and horrified by what I see around me. So I was able to write a book that addresses the truth of a shipboard life⌠but leaves the suggested extremes to your imagination!
I devoured all of his 108 books. Then one day. Long after his death, they brought out a new Wodehouse! I couldnât believe it! I rushed out to buy The Pothunters â a collection of works, written before he got published. And to my utter devastation⌠it was rubbish.
And then I realised⌠Once upon a time he was young. And not very good. It was actually a little dismissive to call him a âgeniusâ, as if it was effortless for him. He had to work really hard to get where he did, and guess what⌠I was rubbish.
In that moment, I realised that maybe if I worked hard, maybe I could get published⌠And my writerâs life began from there.
The Duke's Christmas Redemption
by
Arietta Richmond,
A Duke who has rejected love, a Lady who dreams of a love match, an arranged marriage, a house full of secrets, a most unneighborly neighbor, a plot to destroy reputations, an unexpected love that redeems it all.
Lady Charlotte Wyndham, given in an arranged marriage to a man sheâŚ
I believe that laughter is the best way into a personâs heart and also into their head. Life is beautiful, but it is also incredibly fragile. Satire and humor are effective ways to raise the level of awareness of destructive behaviors and/or controversial topics that are otherwise difficult or unpleasant to address. I think satire and humor make it easier to hold up a mirror and look critically at our own beliefs and our actions.
I dare you to read this book and not belly laugh at least a half dozen times.
I love that Jenny Lawson can poke fun at herself and her relationships and do so in a way that you canât help but cheer for her. This book may have the highest laughs per page ratio Iâve ever read.
Even when I was funny, I wasn't this funny' Augusten Burroughs, author of Running With Scissors
Have you ever embarrassed yourself so badly you thought you'd never get over it?
Have you ever wished your family could be just like everyone else's?
Have you ever been followed to school by your father's herd of turkeys, mistaken a marriage proposal for an attempted murder or got your arm stuck inside a cow? OK, maybe that's just Jenny Lawson . . .
The bestselling memoir from one of America's most outlandishly hilarious writers.
I was born in South Korea and moved to The United States when I was three years old. I grew up in Detroit where I was often the only yellow face in school. The trauma of trying to fit in played a significant role in my adult life. I have thought about writing a memoir for years. Several family members asked me not to name them. I decided to tell my truth through brief snapshots of a feeling or event. This way, I could show my journey from my perspective as I learned to walk between two opposing cultures. Observations Through Yellow Glasses: A Memoir Through Poems is the result.
For forty years, David Sedaris kept a diary filled with his successes, failures, overheard conversations, and secrets confessed by strangers. He adds humor to his memories which is a wonderful change from the traditional memoir. Even a boring day can make us laugh. This is the first of two volumes and is the better of the two.
One of the most anticipated books of 2017: Boston Globe, New York Times Book Review, New York's "Vulture", The Week, Bustle, BookRiot
An NPR Best Book of 2017
An AV Club Favorite Book of 2017 A Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2017
A Goodreads Choice Awards nominee
David Sedaris tells all in a book that is, literally, a lifetime in the making.
For forty years, David Sedaris has kept a diary in which he records everything that captures his attention-overheard comments, salacious gossip, soap opera plot twists, secrets confided by total strangers. These observations are the source code forâŚ
Iâve read more than a hundred biographies over the years, mostly because I want to know what makes great people great. In doing so, I have sifted through some real crap along the way. I donât typically read many stories about losers. Sad to say, and most people donât want to hear it, but losers are a dime a dozen and unmotivating downers. My book list gives others the benefits of my 40-plus years of work in identifying books about brilliant, accomplished people written by first-rate historians and narrated by the âcream of the crop.â
Like the other books in this list and in Chernowâs stable of work, this one was extensively researched.
I crave historical information at this level as long as itâs fed to me one delicious morsel at a time rather than shoved down my throat. There was no shoving here. The author and narrator combine to bring Twain alive to the point where I could see and feel him speak.
I know I wasnât old enough to watch Twain perform his one-man shows around the world, but you couldnât convince me of that immediately after reading this masterpiece. Twain exemplified Americana in his day for thousands upon thousands of folks, and this book makes it easy for me to understand why.
The complex and fascinating life of Mark Twain, as told by a Pulitzer prizewinning biographer
Born in 1835, the man who would become America's first, and most influen tial, literary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. But when the Civil War interrupted his career on the river, the young Mark Twain went west and accepted a job at the local newspaper, writing dis patches that attracted attention for their brashness and humour. It wasn't long until the former steamboat pilot from Missouri was recognized across the country for his literary brilliance.
This book follows the journey of a writer in search of wisdom as he narrates encounters with 12 distinguished American men over 80, including Paul Volcker, the former head of the Federal Reserve, and Denton Cooley, the worldâs most famous heart surgeon.
In these and other intimate conversations, the bookâŚ
As a kid, I wrote a series of plays with my family as characters. Everyone (even the dog and cat) had lines that demonstrated their quirks, except meâthe sane and reasonable one. When I performed these playlets for my mother (performing all parts, since no one else would co-operate) she laughed so hard she cried, and itâs fair to say my subsequent writing career has been an attempt to recapture the feelings that experience generated. Beginning as a joke writer (including a stint working for Jay Leno), I now focus on literary fiction, though humor is always a part of my work.
I received a copy of this book as a gift on my eleventh birthday, and by the time Iâd finished reading it, I had decided to become a writer. What seems at first to be a simply-written series of reminiscences from Thurberâs boyhood in Columbus, Ohio is in fact a fake (or at least exaggeration-filled) memoir, full of tales about charmingly addled characters and unlikely incidents. The chapter entitled âThe Dog that Bit Peopleâ is my personal favorite.
A Bantam Classic, published in 1961. Cover and spine a little rough. Book appears to be unopened (unread). Pages lightly tan with age. Clean, bright used copy with tight binding. NEVER a library book./jl
